The Queen vs. 8 Pawns Endgame!!
Chess theory states that a queen can always beat 8 pawns by force so I decided to put that to the test as part of my own training on using the queen...
For simplicity I placed all the pieces on their "normal" starting squares, let Houdini have the white pawns while I had the black queen... for beginner players especially and even some intermediate players I think this game is quite instructive because it shows not only how the person with the queen should always win but how to use the queen with maximum effectiveness. Constant double-attacks cause the pawns to fall 1-by-1 ...
Capturing the outside a+h pawns is very straightforward but then you have to "dislodge" the king from protecting the 1 pawn that protects all the others - sounds simple and to be honest it is. Once you have done that the whole pawn structure falls apart and a win is guaranteed!
And endgame study is actually really interesting - as the endgame is the coolest part of chess!!
